Iraq: As fighting intensifies, MSF bolsters response around Mosul

With the battle for Mosul intensifying, we are setting up surgical field hospitals to treat the wounded and increasing our support to displaced populations.

As the fighting intensifies in and around Mosul, the humanitarian crisis in Iraq continues to worsen.

MSF's response

As part of our response to widespread medical needs, we have established a field hospital with surgical capacity about 30 kilometres north of the city and are in the process of setting up another in Qayyarah, some 60 kilometres to the south.

“The objective of these hospitals is to treat patients who are severely wounded because of the ongoing fighting,” said Barbara Turchet, MSF Head of Mission in Iraq.

"The hospital north of Mosul is located on the main road to Dohuk and aims to provide stabilisation and lifesaving emergency surgery. For the most critically wounded in this area, offering care as close as possible to the front lines cna be a matter of life and death"

barbara turchetmsf head of mission, iraq

The field surgery hospital has eight emergency beds, four for severely wounded and four for moderately wounded, as well as an operating room and a bed for high dependency patients who need intensive care.

First patients home hit by rocket

“Among the first patients to be admitted were a family whose house was hit by a rocket,” Turchet continued.

“Two members of the family were treated in the MSF facility. Two others were stabilised and referred to the hospital in Al Shekhan. Most of the patients treated or stabilised in the field hospital thus far had injuries caused by shrapnel or gunshots.”

The field hospital being set up in Qayyarah comes in response to the medical needs we are seeing south of Mosul.

MSF

The emergency field hospital has 8 emergency beds, 4 for severely wounded and 4 for moderately wounded. Here, the medical teams discuss ahead of a mass casualty simulation.
The objective of the hospital is to treat severely wounded patients. That means that it provides lifesaving surgery and the patients that have the capability to be referred safely are referred to the hospital in Dohuk, in Kurdistan region, or to El Shikhan hospital, the only functioning hospital in Ninewa governorate.

The objective of the hospital is to treat severely wounded patients and to refer other patients to the hospital in Dohuk or to El Shikhan hospital, the only functioning hospital in Ninewa governorate.

Life-saving care near the frontline

As with the other facility to the north, the goal is to provide surgical capacity within the compound of the existing primary health care centre in Qayyarah – as close to the frontlines as possible.

The emergency room and the hospitalisation wards are ready. The surgical facility is being installed temporarily under inflatable tents, pending the completion of a more robust structure inside retrofitted shipping containers.